


Maelstrom's Gaurdian

by BloodyKangaroo



Category: Naruto, Omamori Himari
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-13
Updated: 2013-01-13
Packaged: 2017-11-25 08:41:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/637093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloodyKangaroo/pseuds/BloodyKangaroo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The descendant of two lines, he was predicted to end the cycle of hatred, but they got a little detail wrong. It wouldn't be one but two he would stop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> all characters are post time skip ages at graduation.

Minato Namikaze stood in his office for the last time. It wasn't a particularly fancy office, just a few shelves lining the back wall, his work desk, and four pictures one of him and one of each of his predecessors. He had always been a business first kind of guy. As he walked over to one of the shelves in the back he flicked his wrist and a ripple went through the air. Where there had once been a shelf of nothing but knick-knacks was now an empty shelf. He reached out and slid his fingers down dead center on the wall behind it and slid out a panel that if you didn't know was there you would never have found it. He reached into the crevice and pulled out a single red scroll with a yellow canine form on it. With that done he replaced the panel that only the Hokages knew about and watched as it vanished into thin air.

He reappeared in a yellow flash on top of the hokage monument standing on his own head. Even from across the village the mighty beast, Kyuubi, could feel him. The beast drew back its head and formed a black sphere which it then fired at the man before it. Minato raised a hand and held out a special marked kunai. Using the most powerful barrier he could manage he was able to warp the massive blast out of the area where it couldn't harm anyone. As he did this a masked figure in a black cloak snuck up behind him.

Minato vanished as the man made contact and appeared in a field. The masked figure stopped for a second trying to feel him out, but he couldn't sense his chakra. He looked side to side trying to figure out what was wrong when he saw Minato appear in front of him with a blue sphere in his hand that he swung forward.

The sphere passed through the man who chuckled and tried to grab Minato, only for his hand pass through harmlessly. Suddenly a jolt of pain flashed through the masked figure as he heard voice behind him speak in a cold tone. "Rasengan."

He turned his head to find Minato Namekaze squatted on his back preparing some form of a technique. The Fourth Hokage then slammed his hand down on the masked figures back.

The cloaked man felt his chakra being disrupted. "A Keiyaku Fujin, are you trying to break my contract with Kyuubi!"

Minato smirked. "I'm not trying to, I did!'

The masked man looked back for a second and saw the Kyuubi jump back with a look of confusion on its face.

The masked man turned to Minato. "No matter, the Kyuubi will one day be mine once more, I am the ruler of the world, and I have many means at my disposal." And vanished in a vortex.

Minato took only a second to glare at where the man left before using his legendary technique, the Hiraishin, to appear before the beast and a summoned the chief of the toad's contract to help him.

"Bunta hold him back, I'll need to time teleport something that big." The fourth said.

"Hurry even I can't hold him back forever." Gamabunta said.

The Bijuu had since recovered from the sudden change in scenery and prepared a new Bijuudama. The most powerful tailed beast aimed an attack containing as much power as it could muster right at the center of the village.

A split second before it could fire Minato used the Hiraishin to move himself and the beast to a field where it couldn't harm anyone.

As he arrived he found Kushina holding Naruto trying to head towards her former prisoner. A number of chains made of pure chakra burst forth from the last known adult Uzumaki. They restrained the mighty beast as Kushina tried handing Minato their son.

"Take him I'll pull the Kyuubi into myself and die delaying its resurrection." Kushina said.

Minato almost considered it for a second for his son's sake but decided to try and think of another plan. He looked down at the bundle in his hands. For a second he felt helpless for the first time in a long time and he hated that feeling.

"Kushina I'm sorry!" He said tears streaming down his face. "You've made me hokage, you've made me a man, and you've made me this child's father and yet..."

"Minato don't look like that." Kushina interrupted. "I'm happy… you love me… and it's his birth day today."

Minato looked at Kushina's smiling face and said. "There's no need for you to die with Kyuubi, use your remaining chakra so you can be reunited with Naruto."

She looked over at him with a surprised expression.

"I'll use the Hakke Fuin to seal your remaining chakra into Naruto." He said standing slowly. "Then I will weaken the Kyuubi with the Shiki Fuin."

"But with that seal you'll…!" She said.

"But I can only seal half the Kyuubi's power." He cut her off. "So I'll have to seal the other half in Naruto."

"Minato!" Kushina said standing quickly. It was too late though as Minato was already flashing through the signs for the Shiki Fuin.

The cold of death washed over the entire area. As Kyuubi turned to face Minato the arm of the Death God launched forth from his stomach. The hand grabbed the Kyuubi's leg and pulled. For a slit second, two half size Kyuubis were in existence, and before the one touching the hand was sucked through Minato and into the death god's mouth.

A pedestal appeared on the ground rising up from the earth itself. Minato placed the baby on the pedestal. Kyuubi seeing a way out took a swipe with its mighty claw aimed at the defenseless new born. Both Minato and Kushina through themselves in front of the claw to protect their son.

"I told you this is something even a father can do." Minato said.

"Then wouldn't a mother be even better?" Kushina asked.

Minato smiled then used the blood to perform a Kuchiyose no Jutsu.

"Whoa the Kyuubi!" Shouted the summoned toad. "Minato what are you doing?"

"Gamatora I'm giving you the key to the seal." Minato said. "I want you to take it to Jiraiya-sensei and store it inside him."

The Death God started to draw its blade.

"Kushina I don't have long." Minato said. "I'll give you the Hakke Fuin now."

As Kushina said her goodbyes to their new born son Minato reached into his jacket and pulled out the scroll he got from his office.

"And take this, it'll keep you safe until you're a man and can protect yourself." She said placing a purple charm that sounded like there was a bell inside next to him.

Minato smiled and placed the scroll next to the charm. "Naruto as you're father I'll just second everything you're chatty mother said."

And with that said Minato sealed the Kyuubi, Kushina, and a bit of himself inside his newborn son.

As the barrier closed Hiruzen Sarutobi the third Hokage walked in quickly and took charge of the situation. "Clean this up, treat everyone here carefully."

Kakashi stood next to the new born Uzumaki. The hero, and new jailor of their greatest threat. Son of his teacher the man who sealed the fox away. "Sir as sensei's student I would like to watch over the boy."

Hiruzen carefully considered it for a full minute before saying. "I'm sorry Kakashi but I can't allow that."

"What?" Kakashi asked with a surprised and a bit of anger voice. "Why not?"

"With Minato dead and the damage the Kyuubi did I'll need every able bodied ninja I can get." Hiruzen told him. "Don't worry I'll personally see he gets the best treatment and care available and you can see him any time you choose."

Kakashi was about to argue but realized he was right. With all the missions Kakashi would need to take he wouldn't be around enough to take care of a baby with all the attention they need.

Hiruzen looked over Naruto on his pedestal he read the scroll next to the boy. He then picked the boy up and said. "Kakashi take the scroll and put it in the Kage vaults."

"Yes sir." Kakashi said with a salute.

Hiruzen sighed; this was not going to be easy.

**********************************************Scene**********************************

BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEP!

A hand slammed into the accursed device making that terrible racket and crushed the poor alarm clock into a piece of nonworking junk.

The owner of the hand rose slowly. Naruto Uzumaki rubbed the sleep form his eyes and looked at his ruined clock.

"Oh man not again." He said in a resigned tone. He picked up the ruined clock and through it in a trash bin with three others.

He rose out of bed and looked around his apartment. It was small only containing the main room and a bathroom. He had all the basic furniture but not much in the way of decoration, only a small set of potted plants on the window.

He looked at his calendar and grinned. Today was the day that he'll finally pass the Academy test and become a ninja. He got dressed and picked up his personal good luck charm; the old man said his parents it left to him. He flicked it once to hear the bell sound that soothed his loneliness so many times before running off to take the exam.

He arrived at the academy, and for once Naruto actually seemed quiet and focused.

When his name was called he walked confidently into the room.

"Alright Naruto just make three or more working clones." Said the instructor Iruka Umino.

Naruto nodded and focused his Chakra as best he could. A swirling blue dome formed around Naruto as he shouted out. "Bunshin No Jutsu!"

A smoke cloud flooded the room and when it cleared… Naruto stood there staring heartbroken at his one sickly looking clone.

Iruka looked at the poor boy and sighed. "I'm sorry Naruto you failed."

That was when the assistant instructor Mizuki spoke up. "Oh come on Iruka why don't we let it slide just this once."

Iruka looked at Mizuki and shook his head. "I wish we could but you know why passing this test is important."

Naruto sighed and slipped out the window so he wouldn't have to face the crowd. That at least Iruka could let slide this once.

Naruto sat on a roof ledge outside the academy walls trying to ignore the scorn and ridicule. It was pretty easy when he was so caught up in his own thoughts.

"Naruto." A voice from behind said.

The blond turned around to find Mizuki standing behind him. "Mizuki-sensei."

Mizuki sat down next Naruto and asked. "Do you want to know a secret?"

Naruto looked at him odd for a second before nodding slowly.

"There's another way to pass the exam." Mizuki said.

Naruto enthusiastically asked. "What is it?"

"All you have to do is sneak into the hokage mansion and steal the scroll of sealing. Then learn one technique from it and you pass." Mizuki said.

Naruto grinned and the two split off.

That night Naruto was sneaking quietly from roof to roof. He henged his usual orange and black jumpsuit into a grey camouflage patterned one with a hood and slipped through the window into the hokage mansion.

He found the scroll in the vaults and went to grab it when suddenly the lights came on.

"Who are you?" Said the old Hokage in a dangerous tone.

Naruto thinking quickly used his greatest technique. "Orioke no Jutsu."

The old man was propelled out of the room by the force of his nose bleed and lost consciousness.

Naruto grabbed the scroll and fled to the forest.

The old Hokage called an emergency meeting.

"Naruto has stolen the scroll of sealing as a prank." The old man said. "You must find him and get the scroll back."

"He's gone too far this time." Shouted one of the ninja. Soon the entire lot was calling for blood at the treasonous stunt.

"Enough find Naruto, bring him, and the scroll to me and there will be no further discussion." The Hokage said his voice caring all the authority some one of his station wielded.

Naruto meanwhile was alone in a clearing in the forest.

"Okay now what's the first move on here?" He said. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, Bunshin my worst technique."

He skimmed to find something easier. "Man this stuff is hard looking." He sighed in defeat.

"Bunshin it is." He said in a resigned tone.

Iruka was bounding through the trees hoping he found his fellow orphan before anyone else. They may not have tried to kill him for his burden, but treason was another story since even a clan head would be executed for that by any loyal ninja.

Iruka jumped into the clearing after chancing upon Naruto first.

"Naruto what the hell do you think you're doing?" Iruka demanded.

"Wow you got here fast sensei I only had time to learn one technique." Naruto said.

"What are you talking about Naruto?" Iruka asked.

"Mizuki said that if I studied the scroll and learned a technique off it I could become a genin." Naruto said.

Iruka's face became deathly serious. Naruto caught on to this and asked. "What's wrong Iruka-sensei?"

"Naruto there is no such test." Iruka said.

A flash of light under the full moon was seen and Iruka spun quickly deflecting the flying kunai.

"Mizuki." The scarred instructor said in a cold tone.

"Hello Iruka." The white hair traitor said before turning to Naruto. "Naruto give me the Scroll."

"Don't listen to him Naruto he's a traitor!" Iruka shouted.

"Heh heh heh." Mizuki chuckled. "Naruto do you want to know a real secret."

Naruto's head snapped over to Mizuki.

"The one about the reason nobody likes you." Mizuki continued.

"Don't Mizuki it's forbidden!" Iruka said.

"Sixteen years ago the village was attacked by a nine tailed fox but the Fourth Hokage managed to stop the beast." Mizuki paused to let it sink in for a second. "However he couldn't kill the beast only seal it in a newborn baby."

Naruto's face showed a slow realization.

"That baby was you." Mizuki said "You are the nine tailed fox!"

Naruto froze in horror and shock.

"Now die demon." Mizuki said hurtling an enormous shuriken at Naruto.

Iruka jumped in between Naruto and the shuriken, but to his surprise Naruto managed to stay more aware than he looked. He tripped Iruka then grabbed his collar and threw him out of the way taking the massive shurikan to the chest.

Both watched, one in horror, and the other ecstatic. Iruka's shock didn't stay shock for long. He quickly became furious and turned on his former colleague.

"MIZUKI!" he shouted with rage in his voice and tears on his face, as he charged with a kunai drawn.

Mizuki barely got his second shuriken up in time to defend himself. The force of Iruka's blade jarred the other chuunin and almost knocked him off balance.

Mizuki pushed back and as the two clashed trying to break each other's guard Mizuki drew a kunai form his sleeve and stabbed at Iruka. Iruka jumped back to avoid the strike and threw his kunai at Mizuki who side stepped the thrown weapon. Iruka drew another pair of kunai and charged his opponent intent on killing the traitor.

The dying Naruto meanwhile was in his mind scape. He looked around a sewer and watched as a yellow blur shot by. Without thinking he ran after it. He ran down the corridors chasing the blur. He tried to identify it but it was always turning a corner when he saw it. After what seemed an eternity of running he turned to find a small tunnel in the wall. Naruto saw a glimpse of yellow and started climbing up the tunnel. As he climbed the tunnel tightened. He crawled further and further and just when he thought there was no end he saw a beam of light.

He climbed out and looked around to find himself in the court yard of a large castle like a Daimyo would live in.

As he marveled at the sights an ethereal voice spoke up behind him. "Welcome."

He turned to find a large yellow fox the size of one of the Inuzuka clan's adult ninken with two long tails moving behind it.

"Who are you?" Asked the blond. Somehow this wasn't what he expected the Death God to look like.

"I am you." The fox said.

"What are you talking about I'm me." Naruto said confused.

"I am an embodiment of your suppressed blood." The fox said.

"What do you mean ''suppressed blood''." Naruto asked.

"You are a Hanyou." Said the fox. "Half-human, Half kitsune."

"So I really am the nine tails." Naruto said in a sad tone.

The fox's fur bristled and it growled. "Do not compare us to that Thing." The fox said practically spiting the last word like it was poison.

Naruto nodded frightened by the sudden outburst.

"We are a proud and noble spirits of flame and nature." The fox said. "That monster is a beast capable only of destruction and killing."

The fox took several deep breaths and calmed itself down. "Now that we have met you must finally be ready to handle our power."

"What power?" Naruto asked.

"The power that comes from being the child of one of the greatest kitsune ever to live." The fox said. Then a blue and white flame engulfed the creature. The fire slowly crept outward from the fox engulfing the court yard. Naruto felt no need to run from the fire as it got close in fact he felt somewhat excited. When the flame finally did come in contact with him it didn't feel hot like fire is supposed to but rather warm.

Outside in the battle field.

Mizuki was gloating over the downed Iruka. During the fight he had gotten a lucky blow to the leg. Had he just finished Iruka off it would have been the perfect chance to escape. But he didn't he merely stood above him gloating.

Then they felt it. Power, not chakra just power though they didn't know what kind. Mizuki turned his head in time to see the fist as it connected with his skull. He flew clear across the clearing. When he looked up to see what had happened he couldn't believe his eyes.

Naruto was standing there eyes fixed in a cold glare. After a second he realized that something was different though. Naruto had fangs and not just that but the ears on the side of his head were gone, instead he had a pair of vulpine ears, and behind him two wildly lashing tails that reminded him of the Kyuubi, and his finger and toe nails had become some sort of pseudo claws. This was all topped off by the fact that his entire body was wrapped in an aura of blue and white fire.

Mizuki started spinning his massive shurikan. "So you really are the nine tails huh."

Naruto didn't say anything he just glared.

"Well all the better for me that just means I actually do get to kill the demon fox!" Mizuki said laughing manically. He then hurtled the shuriken at Naruto as hard as he could.

Just before the shuriken could touch Naruto a flash of blue lashed out and struck the shuriken knocking it out of the air. Naruto crouched on all fours and ran towards Mizuki.

Mizuki drew back his fist only for Naruto to stop right before getting in Mizuki's range. Then the fire around him expanded outward and engulfed the entire field.

Iruka shielded his eyes and waited for death. It never came. He opened his eyes and was amazed by what he saw. Not only was he not dead he wasn't every burnt. In fact nothing in the field was, not the trees, not the grass, not Naruto. The only thing that was burnt was Mizuki who had third degree burns on his face and hands. Other than that was impossible to tell because his clothes weren't even singed.

"Iruka sensei! Are you alright?" Asked Naruto. Somehow while Iruka was distracted the blond had gotten right next to him.

Iruka smiled and said. "Naruto close your eyes."

Naruto looked confused but did as he was told for once.

After a couple of seconds Iruka said. "Okay you can open them now."

Naruto did and saw that Iruka's head band was gone. He reached up and touched his head. There was the feeling of cold metal and cloth. Naruto's face slowly went from confusion to happiness.

"Congratulations Naruto you graduate." Iruka said.

Naruto leapt in the air and shouted. "YES!"

Back in the hokage's office the old man chuckled. Having watched everything on his crystal ball.

"Well done Naruto kun, well done."


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto was on his way to class to get his team assignment. He was decked out in new close he had to get to cover his appearance change. He now wore a pair of baggy orange pants tied at the bottom with a white wrap a black t-shirt under an orange sleeveless jacket and his head was covered with a black bandana with his hair hiding his missing ears. He wanted to use henge but the old hokage suggested this because unlike a henge it wouldn't constantly drain his chakra and wouldn't burst if he lost focus. He had discovered that was a wise choice for a different reason when talking with the hokage's grandson.

Flash back

Naruto was sitting on a log in a small forested area with a young boy with spikey brown hair named Konohamaru. While they were discussing Konohamaru's hatred of people constantly calling him by things like "Honorable grandson" rather than his name, and how it made him feel like they didn't see him other then just being the hokage's grandson. Being who he was Naruto could sympathize with people seeing you as something you don't want be due to a situation that's out of your control.

But they were interrupted by a man in a blue shirt and pants with a bandana that had the top corner loose and a pair of sun glasses.

"Honorable grandson I have found you." Declared the man. "Now let's go home."

"No I'm gonna defeat grandpa and become the hokage!" Konohamaru declared. He then formed a ram seal and started molding his chakra.

"A hokage must be well versed in all ninja arts and know over a thousand techniques." The man said. "The only way you will get there is with my elite instruction."

"Henge!" Konohamaru shouted and a cloud of smoke formed around him.

"Huh?" The man asked.

The smoke cleared to reveal a naked woman with the same color hair as young ninja hopeful covered only by wisps of smoke. "Orioke no Jutsu!"

The man pushed up his glasses with a disgusted expression. "Vulgar!"

Konohamaru changed back. "Huh it didn't work."

"I am a gentleman such a low class skill won't work on me." He said. Then man grabbed Konohmaru's scarf and tried to drag him away. "Young master if you hang out with the likes of him you'll turn stupid."

Naruto formed the cross shaped seal for his new technique.

"Just do what I say since I am the short cut to becoming hokage." The man continued.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto exclaimed. A cloud of smoke formed and as it cleared twenty of the orange wearing shinobi stood ready for battle.

"Humph." The man said pushing up his sunglasses. "Don't think I'll go down as easily as Mizuki."

The twenty Narutos each formed a ram seal. "Transform!"

A cloud of smoke formed. From inside the cloud burst twenty naked blond teenage girls with hair tied into one pigtail on each side of their heads, A pair of yellow white tipped fox ears, and a pair of fluffy yellow white tipped fox tails.

Meanwhile in the hokage's office.

*Thud* Saurtobi Hiruzen, the God of Shinobi, the Professor, the Third Hokage, head desked.

Back with Naruto.

The tutor went flying backwards through the air with nothing more than the force of his nosebleed.

The twenty fox girls were covered in another cloud of smoke that cleared to reveal only a single Naruto with a cocky smile. "I call that Harem no Jutsu."

"It's not fair I couldn't even defeat my tutor." Konohamaru whined. "I really want a name people will acknowledge."

Naruto punched him in the head knocking him to the ground.

"Dummy you think it's that easy?" Naruto asked the boy.

"Huh?" Konohamaru asked.

"The name of hokage is the greatest in the village." Naruto said. "There is no easy way to get there; it can't be done in a day by some kid that's not even out of the academy."

Konohamaru looked up. He stopped Naruto as he was leaving and declared them rivals. Naruto told him that he was already on his way but that when he got there he would gladly fight him for the title.

Flash back end.

Naruto took a deep breath before opening the door and walking in. No one even seemed to notice until he walked up to the spiky head of the laziest student at the academy.

"Naruto what are you doing hear this is only for people that passed?" Shikamaru asked.

Naruto pointed a thumb at his forehead protector and said. "I did pass idiot."

Shikamaru flicked up his eyes slightly and mumbled. "Troublesome."

Naruto walked on and took an open seat at a random table in the middle of the room. It just happened to be next to the Aburame heir, Shino.

It wasn't long before another came into the room. Two actually Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino burst through the door both at the exact same time declaring themselves first. Naruto proceeded to drool at the sight of Sakura. The two at the door argued until the pink haired girl looked around and smiled at Naruto's side of the room. Naruto got up to say hi only for her to walk past him without a word. Naruto slumped his shoulders hanging his head in sorrow.

Shikamaru, Akamichi Chouji, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino all had the decency to at least think the same thing for the poor blond. "COLD"

One Hyuuga Hinata had different thoughts, thoughts that involved skinning the pinkette for bringing down the normally cheerful blond.

Naruto got ready to move and confront the target of his affections target, Uchiha Sasuke, when a voice spoke up in his mind.

"Don't, you'll ever get away with it." His inner fox said.

"So Sakura-chan brushes me off for that prick and you say don't do anything?" Asked Naruto mentally.

"I never said do nothing just not what you were about to." The fox said. Naruto could actually feel his other half smirking. As It whispered a plan into his mind. Naruto had to actively stop himself from cackling like a mad man.

He focused the power he gained the night of the Mizuki incident, Youki his other side called it, and put his plan into action. He used a fox illusion to make it look like he had walked over to his seat while camouflaging the real Naruto, while he wasn't good enough for anything complex he could do the little things and since most shinobi aren't trained to look for anything but chakra a genin would never catch his illusion, a chuunin maybe, and a jounin was guaranteed, but not a normal genin. He walked over to the chalk board and picked up a pair of erasers and walked quietly up to the Uchiha. He then held both erasers up to with the bottom pointed towards the ceiling and blew. The Uchiha got a face full of chalk dust that seemed to spawn from thin air and went into a sneezing fit.

Naruto quietly snuck back and replaced the erasers while the Uchiha's fangirl legion tried to help. The entire male half of the class with a few more stoic exceptions laughed at what had just happened; even Hinata had a small giggle since it didn't hurt anyone. He quietly slid into place and dropped the illusion. For a second he could swear he saw Shino look at him.

As the Uchiha stoped sneezing the fangirls moved onto the next phase, assigning blame. Naturally it quickly fell to the class clown.

"Naruto why did you do that to Sasuke-kun?" Demanded Sakura.

Shino spoke up on his behalf. "I'm sorry Haruno-san but is there something you know that we don't?"

"What?" She asked. "Who else could it be?"

"Well it couldn't have been Uzumaki san he was right next to me when it happened." Shino said. "So unless you have proof I request you not make baseless accusations against a fellow genin."

"But he's not!" She declared.

"I beg to differ." Shino said.

Shikamaru not missing a chance to do something that would actually get him some amusement said. "His forehead protector is on a bandana covering the entire top of his head how did you miss that."

Naruto probably would have rushed to Saukra's defense if he wasn't distracted by the fact that not one but two of his classmates just stuck up for him. Granted he actually did it this time but hey they didn't need to know that.

Sakura just stood there with her mouth hanging open when the door opened and Iruka limped in through the door. "All right sit down were assigning teams."

Iruka went through the first six teams before getting to anyone with a high rank or a clan.  
"Team seven will be Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Akamichi Chouji."

"Yes true love conquers all!" Thought Sakura while flashing her rival a v for victory.

"Team eight will be, Aburame Shino, Uzumaki Naruto, and Yamanaka Ino."

Naruto and Ino groaned simultaneously.

"Team nine is still in use so team ten will be Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Nara Shikamaru."

"You're all free your sensei will meet you back here in an hour."

Naruto sighed and started to stand so he could walk to his favorite restaurant for lunch.

Shino spoke. "Uzumaki-san Yamanaka-san perhaps we should have lunch together."

Naruto turned back to him shrugged and the two looked over at Ino. She sighed and got up to follow them.

As the trio were discussing what to eat, Ino wanted some place that could serve food that would fit her diet, Naruto of course wanted ramen, Shino well he just wanted the yelling to stop.

"I'm telling you we should go to Ichiraku's!" Naruto exclaimed loudly.

"And I'm telling you no!" Ino shouted back.

As the two loud members of team eight glared at each other a female voice spoke up. "Pardon but mightiest thou be … Uzumaki Naruto m'lord."

The entire team looked over to the source of the voice in surprise. It came from a pretty girl in a light purple kimono with long black hair tied in a ponytail and purple eyes, carrying something long and thin wrapped in a dark blue cloth.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, whose askin'" The blond said.

Faster than any of the off guard ninja could follow the girl slid behind Naruto and said. "My thou hast become quite handsome."

Naruto froze when she said that.

"But how bold are thou?" The girl asked blowing on his neck.

This caused Shino to raise an eyebrow. Naruto getting hit on was an unusual sight to say the least. Ino well she just shut down on the spot. As she was incapable of comprehending a girl, especially a girl that pretty, hitting on Naruto. She could understand any other guy, Sasuke obviously, Kiba or Shikamaru believable, Chouji at least had the nice guy thing in his favor, Even Shino had a large clan, but Naruto it just didn't make sense.

Naruto well he was practically dead on the spot. He literally had no idea how to react to the situation.

"Um thanks." He said nervously backing away.

"Uzumaki-san I believe we still have to eat lunch before meeting our sensei." Shino said helping the socially inept blond.

"Right um nice meeting you miss uh?" Naruto started.

"Himari." The girl introduced herself getting close to Naruto once more.

"Right miss Himari but I have to go do important team stuff." Naruto said grabbing the still stunned Yamanaka and getting out of there.

Himari chuckled a little as he left.

Lunch went easier without Ino's arguing and soon the trio was sitting back in the class room. Not long after the door opened and a woman with long wild black hair and red eyes wearing an outfit that looked like she had just unrolled some scrolls and wrapped them around her walked into the class.

"Whoa a babe I hope she's our teacher." Kiba quietly whispered to Shikamaru.

"Will team eight please come with me." She said.

Naruto, Shino and Ino all stood up and the woman, Yuhi Kurenai, looked back at her team and remembered her discussion with the hokage.

Flash back.

The old hokage and the woman were looking at the blond through the hokage's crystal ball between classes.

"That's him?" Asked the konuoichi.

"Yes Naruto-kun has developed a rather unique fire technique." The old hokage said. He then took out a pipe and started to smoke it. "It lit up the entire clearing where the battle took place in and covered the traitor in third degree burns head to toe but burnt nothing else, not even the man's clothes."

"Impressive but why choose me to be his teacher then?" She asked. "Surely Kakashi or Asuma would be a better choice for a ninjutsu teacher."

"Because he gained another ability that night that he is far less talented in and he needs an illusion specialist to help him grow it into a competent skill." The old hokage said. He took another puff of his pipe and continued. "He gained an affinity for illusion and while not quite useless with it, a ninja would see through anything he made in a second."

"I see." Kurenai said. Well that was a great chance to prove herself. Teach the dead last with no chakra control to be a master of genjustsu and nobody would say that she wasn't good enough because she was a woman any more.

Flash back end.

The four wound up at a heavily forested training ground. Kurenai sat down on a large rock and the genin followed.

"So let's start with an introduction." Kurenai said.

When none of the genin responded she decided to go first.

"My name is Yuhi Kurenai, My likes are-" Was as far as she got before Ino snapped out of her daze.

"Naruto who was that girl?" Ino loudly demanded to know.

Kurenai looked confused.

"When we went for lunch before this meeting a rather attractive young woman made several advances on Uzumaki-san." Shino explained.

"I don't know." Naruto said looking at the blonde girl. "I've never met her before."

"Well she clearly called you by your full name?" Asked Ino. She would make sense of this.

"You think I would forget a girl like that." Naruto asked.

Ino pointed and opened her mouth to argue. She couldn't think of one.

"Excuse me but could you two please finish this on your own time?" Asked Kurenai politely.

Ino turned her head to their teacher and asked. "Whose she?"

Naruto immediately burst out into laughter.

"She is our instructor." Shino said simply.

Ino blushed in embarrassment. "Oh sorry."

"May I continue Yamanaka-san?" Kurenai asked.

Ino nodded and sat down embarrassed.

"My name is Yuhi Kurenai, I like drinking with my friends and practicing my genjutsu, I dislike men who think I can't be strong simply because of my gender, my hobby is drinking, and my dream is to help all of you become the best ninja you can be." She said.

Shino went next. "My name is Aburame Shino I like winter melon and my insects, I dislike people that refuse to listen to reason, my hobby is collecting and studying insects, my dream is to become a great shinobi."

Ino took the next introduction before Naruto could even open his mouth. "My name is Yamanaka Ino, I like flowers, I dislike Sakura, my hobby is shopping, and my dream is to take over as next head of the Yamanaka clan."

Naruto finally got his introduction. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto I like ramen, I dislike the three minutes it takes to cook ramen, my hobbies are trying different kinds of ramen and training, my dream is to become the greatest hokage yet!"

His teammates leaned away from him slightly.

"Do you have to be so loud?" Ino asked angrily.

"Yes." Naruto said nodding with his arms crossed.

"Yes well now that's out of the way I'm supposed to test you to see if you can become genin." Kurenai told them diffusing the argument quickly.

"But we're already genin." Naruto said.

"No that test was merely meant to find potential genin and weed out those with no potential." Shino said. Then he looked at their instructor. "Correct?"

"Yes that's right." Kurenai said impressed that the Aburame figured that out. "How did you know?"

"A simple clone jutsu should not be good enough to qualify one to be a genin; it only makes sense to test a team on actual field skill." Shino said simply.

She nodded. "I will… excuse me but this field is in use."

The genin turned around. There behind them was Kiba looking strangely gaunt.

"Uzumaki." He said in a low tone. He charged the blond before he could actually react. Shino pulled his team mate out of the way.

"Naruto what did you do?" Asked the Yamanaka.

"This week... nothing." Naruto said.

The three quickly stood across from Kiba. Naruto clenched his fists and took the front spot. Shino took middle and had his bugs start forming a cloud around the group, Ino got into position for her clans Shintenshin no Jutsu. Kurenai stood back and watched. Naruto charged the Inuzuka first followed by Shino's Insects. The Uzumaki threw a punch while catching a side swipe from the Inuzuka. Kiba caught Naruto's punch but was covered in Shino's insect swarm quickly. Ino lined up and fired her technique attempting to take over Kiba's body. The second she made it in a surge surrounded Kiba and she was forcibly ejected.

"There's something else in there!" Ino declared.

"Uzumaki. You. Will. Die." Kiba said braking away from their grappling match.

"That would be a problem." A voice spoke up. They all looked up in time to see Himari jump in between Naruto. "He wouldeth be my man."

And Ino shut down, again. This time it was a little different though. This time Naruto joined her. Shino had a much more calm reaction.

"Do not interfere." The bug user said. "He's a shinobi you will get hurt."

The girl responded by drawing a sword. Naruto snapped back to reality as she charged at Kiba. He grabbed the girl from behind managing to get two handfuls of a pair of incredibly large breasts.

The girl swung her fist back hitting Naruto in the face. "Where art thou placing thy hands."

She then slammed the flat of her blade into Kiba knocking the wind and a black cloud out of the Inuzuka. She chased the cloud stabbing it dead center and bounding off before anyone could say anything.

Naruto got up rubbing his nose. "What just happened?"

"You all passed." Answered the jounin they had all forgotten was there in the excitement.

"Huh?" Ino and Naruto's intelligent reply. Shino just stayed quite.

"You all just proved that you could work as a team, handle dangerous situations even when you don't expect them, and have the skills required to handle a combat situation." Kurenai said.

Naruto leapt into the air with a fist pump and a cry of. "Yes!"

"Uzumaki san I do ask however." Kurenai continued.

Naruto looked at her confused.

"Please keep your hands off of Yamanaka-san and myself." She asked with a dangerous glint in her eye.

"Of- of course sensei." Naruto squeaked out nervously.

Naruto went home that night after a celebratory ramen binge. He opened the door and sat on the edge of his bed. As he started to take his sandals off he felt something warm and soft press against his back.

"My retiring for the night already." He heard from behind.

He turned his head to find the girl from earlier.

"What are you doing here?" He asked shouting.

"Humph." The girl pouted at him. "When a good looking girl comeith to thee in the night, thou shouldest be happy."

Naruto blinked.

The girl pulled him down and got on top of him. "Dost thou remember how I felt this earlier."

Naruto panicked remembering the punch.

"If m'lord wishes we could continue from there." She said pressing herself against him. She started to lick his neck.

"What is going on here?" He asked.

Himari got back into a sitting position and started undoing his shirt.

"Wha?"He asked

She found his charm and picked it up shaking it. The sound was gone.

"What the." Once more Naruto asked panicky this time.

"This charm was meant to protect m'lord until he became a man." She said. "Now m'lord shall be pursued by more spirits like the one today."

"Spirits?" Naruto asked.

"But worry not even more than my oath, no even had I not taken the oath I shall protect thee m'lord." She said as she moved back to lying on him. "I shall never stray from m'lord's side."

Before Naruto could ask another question Himari said. "Forgive me I must retire for the night."

And just like that Naruto lay pinned to his bed by a sleeping beautiful girl. He sighed, then yawned and fell into a blissful slumber.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto woke up feeling something warm pressed against him. He looked down only to find the woman from the day before proving that it wasn't a dream. It also presented a problem, namely on how to get up without waking her. As he lay there contemplating the solution to his problem he couldn't help but notice the girl's large chest heaving softly with every breath and a quickly smacked himself.

"No! I am not a pervert!" He declared to himself.

"I see that is indeed good to know m'lord." The girl spoke.

"How long have you been a wake?" He asked in a startled tone.

"Since before you have." The girl said smiling and moving in close to his face. "Does m'lord not enjoy it?"

Naruto thought long and hard about this question. Fearing the consequences of a possible answer could bring down on him. A rare event but even he was smart enough to know of what happens when you anger a woman in Konoha, especially one with a sword.

"I can safely say that I don't hate it." He said and hoped for the best.

"Oh then." The girl stopped and licked his neck from shoulder to chin while pulling him in tighter. "I guess I shall have to work on that."

Naruto shuddered and lifted the girl off of him. He was a trained ninja and he knew better than to let his guard down aground a potentially dangerous opponent. She looked at him confused.

"Okay care to explain who you are and what you're doing here." He asked.

"Hmm I am Himari or have you already forgotten? My clan has served the Uzumaki line since my grandfather's time as guardians to untrained heirs." She explained. "That is you the next heir to the demon slayer clan Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto took that in for a second.

"Well that's ironic." Spoke his inner fox. "A half demon leading a clan of demon hunters."

"And you can do this because?" He asked wary of the risk of her offing him if she discovered his heritage.

A pair of white cat ears sprouted from the top of her head. "Because I am one of the spirits your clan fights, mine being a cat."

Naruto stared in slight awe. His hand reached up and started rubbing her ears to see if they were real.

Himari smiled. "Now where were we?"

Naruto went slightly blue.

"Sorry no time I have to eat and meet up with the rest of my team." He said quickly in a panicked tone.

Himari pouted while getting off him. Naruto grabbed some spare cloths out of his closet and changed in his small bathroom. He left for the training field from the day before with a half ready cup of instant ramen in hand.

Himari muttered to herself before turning into her true form; a small white cat, and following from the roof tops.

He arrived at the clearing and took a seat on a rock like the day before. Ino was next to arrive and began looking at him funny before sitting a little away.

"Stay over there, Eromaki." She said.

"It was an accident! I was trying to save Kiba!" He exclaimed.

Ino looked at him disbelievingly and sarcastically replied. "Riiight."

Shino came next and sat quietly between them. "You shouldn't argue so much. Why? Because we are team mates and need to work well together."

"And we won't argue as long as Eromaki there stays more than an arm's length away unless necessary." Ino said.

"I said I was helping Kiba." Naruto grumbled.

Shino nodded. "He was merely aiding a comrade in trouble."

"That-" Naruto started.

"That he got to enjoy such an enviable method of doing so was merely good luck." Shino finished.

Naruto hung his head in defeat. "I can't win today can I?"

The sound of wind and fluttering leaves alerted them to their sensei's arrival. They all turned to face her. She smiled at them and began explaining the methods she would be teaching them.

"In addition to group training in team work, strategy, and combat I will train you each individually on assorted weaknesses." She said. "Yamanaka."

Ino's head popped up and she tensed.

"I will focus with you on chakra control and combat ninjutsu as well as a few konouichi things the boys don't need to be taught."

Ino nodded.

"Aburame." Kurenai said.

Shino nodded subtly to indicate he was listening.

"You and I will focus on ways for you to hide yourself while using your insects also we will work on your taijutsu skills." She told him.

The insect user nodded again.

"Uzumaki." She announced.

"Yeah?" Naruto asked excited to be learning anything to help become Hokage.

"We will work on your taijutsu, genjutsu, and I will try to help with your ninjutsu and chakra control, and I was instructed to show you the arts of fuinjutsu to the best of my admittedly limited abilities."

Naruto went blue from shock. "Why do I have so much?"

"Because you are the least skilled member of the team." She replied.

Ino was about to say "HA" when Kurenai finished. "And you have the most ambitious goal."

Naruto conceded knowing that the Hokage had to be the best.

"Now then let's start with our team work training." She said clapping her hands together.

They spent the rest of the morning working on operating together. It went smoother than any predicted. Ino despite her laid back approach to everything casual was a serious and skilled ninja, Shino worked well at reasoning with her and Naruto keeping them going efficiently, and Naruto for his lack of skill was actually a surprisingly fast and strong and could easily bolster their numbers with Kage Bunshins which got roughly the same response that Himari had the day before, an unfazed Shino and Ino gaping like a fish.

They got lunch at an actual restaurant that didn't have ramen, much to Naruto's chagrin, and discussed strategy between courses. Naruto again surprised his team even Shino this time by coming up with some out of the box thinking and potentially valid strategies. While he was still the worst person on the team this time it was more because his team was brilliant rather than him being terrible.

The afternoon was devoted to smaller D rank missions. Which actually got the first unanimous opinion from the entire team, absolute utter burning hatred that none of them thought they were capable of.

"Why are we cleaning out a park? This is community service not a mission!" Naruto complained.

"Yeah!" Ino declared. "I'm with Eromaki."

Shino just nodded but killer intent rolling off him in waves was enough to tell everyone just how much he agreed.

"Why can't I just use Kage Bunshin?" Asked Naruto.

"Because that defeats the purpose." Kurenai said.

Getting a blank look from the two more vocal genin she continued. "These D ranks are meant to build bonds between teams before the life and death stuff."

The duo looked at each other and sighed.

As they walked into the Hokage's tower, a large red and white building, they all huffed a sigh of relief.

"Ahh team eight I assume you finished the mission." The aged Hokage said.

"Yes Hokage-sama." The Jounin announced formally.

"Excellent oh and Naruto-kun." He said.

Naruto looked up.

"I would like to see you in my office later I have two things to give you now that you have passed the genin exam." The Hokage said.

Naruto smiled.

"Why does he get special treatment?" Asked Ino irritably under her breath.

"He doesn't these were things left to him by a parent for when he became a genin." The Hokage said with confident smile.

Ino started to sweat a little. "Aren't old people supposed to have worse hearing than younger people?"

Naruto snickered slightly. Had any of them paid much attention they would have seen a small white cat slip out a high window.

Naruto was waiting patiently in the Hokage's office, a round room furnished with a desk and two green couches at either wall, he knew at least one of these things was a scroll he had found one of his many times in there that the hokage had told him his father left for him when he got old enough or became a ninja.

"Now that I think about it that should have been a giveaway about the test thing." Naruto said to himself.

The door opened and Hiruzen walked in and sat at his desk.

"Now Naruto-kun before I hand you your scroll I have one other thing to give you." He said and reached under his desk.

The old man pulled out a beginner's guide to fuinjutsu.

"So you the one that recommended I learn that." Naruto said while looking at the book.

"Ah a most useful volume indeed." Said a female voice that came from the door.

They both looked over to it to find Himari.

"Who are you?" Asked the Hokage with a dangerous edge in his voice.

The cat spirit sauntered over and draped herself over Naruto with a confident smile. "I am m'lord's bodyguard."

"What?" The Hokage asked flatly.

"My clan has served under the Uzumaki for generations as guardians while they faced threats of both mystical and mundane." She explained.

"Oh so they used the tenko." The Hokage started.

"No the tenko only affects chakra, their fuinjutsu skill that is what they used to handle spirits." She said. "They would seal the youki that spirits and demon's wielded and reduce them to mundane before killing them with conventional weaponry and ninjutsu."

"I see hence the approval of the fuinjutsu primer." The old hokage said.

Naruto meanwhile sat stunned at the ease the old man accepted this with. "Aren't you even the least bit suspicious?"

"Not really your mother was never one for keeping unnecessary secrets." Hiruzen said taking a casual puff of his pipe.

Naruto's eye twitched. "And this didn't seem important to tell me?"

"Not at the time no since I always figured none would dare attack you in a shinobi village." The Hokage said.

"Well that didn't work out too well since a spirit possessed Kiba yesterday and tried to kill me." Naruto replied flatly.

The look on the Hokage's face when he heard that was almost worth having someone try to kill him to see, almost.

"What?" The old hokage asked.

"Yesterday during the team test a spirit possessed Inuzuka Kiba in order to get close and kill me." Naruto said completely straight.

Hiruzen nearly had a heart attack at that. After he finally calmed down the old man said. "We'll have to get you an Anbu guard if things like that are going to happen."

"That will not be necessary." Said Himari. "I shall watch over m'lord as any not properly trained or equipped person would only interfere no matter how skilled they are."

"And you can fight them because?" Asked the Hokage.

She showed him her sword. "This blade was forged solely for that purpose."

As Hiruzen inspected the blade he noticed that it emitted energy similar to the kind Naruto used for illusions and that blue-white fire he created. The girl took it back as the Hokage nodded.

"I understand so I can trust you to guard Naruto-kun at least until such a time he can handle himself?" The old man asked.

"Of course." The girl said hugging the blond. "I would have done that even had you forbade me from doing so."

The Hokage smiled someone that said that without hesitation to a kage of all people was loyal to whomever they were watching over that much was assured. Though that didn't mean he wasn't going to put up that Anbu guard, better safe than sorry after all. That cleared up he wrote up a letter.

Handing it to Naruto he said. "Give this to your sensei, it explains basically what is going on and will give the cover story as to why this young lady is allowed to accompany you on shinobi exercises."

Naruto took the note and nodded.

"Excellent now for the other thing you were promised." The old Hokage said reaching below his desk. The old man pulled out a red scroll with a yellow canine image on it. Naruto gladly took the scroll and ran off. As he walked home he heard his stomach growl and with lack of a nearby ramen stand went into a tea house and started to skim the scroll. While he was reading a rather busty woman with blonde hair tied up in a pair of twin pigtails on each side of her head came up to take his order.

"One green tea and a plate of dango." He said not paying any real attention. He was too eager to get back to his scroll.

The first five bits were just illusions he wouldn't be able to do yet but the next thing really caught his attention. A theory that was something he alone would be able to do according to the scroll. He quickly read over the theory then stopped a minute to digest it while the waitress brought his order. Then he read it again to make sure. The theory was something that could only be performed by a half breed like himself. A way to combine youki that only demons and spirits possessed with chakra that only humans and ordinary animals possessed. The rest of the scroll was a blank with a template for how to write out any new techniques created using this method. Naruto quickly devoured his order, paid, and left to find somewhere private to start working on this idea.

After finding someplace called training ground forty four and getting a nice secure branch about as thick around as Chouji high up and far enough from the way in, so that nobody would stumble across him. Naruto began studying the idea in closer detail. With no real idea where to start he began by simply trying to mold chakra while focusing youki. It didn't go well.

*BOOOOOM*! The singed Naruto rose up from the ground having fallen a good forty feet to the ground. "Well that didn't' go as planned." He said.

He tried again from the ground this time so that if he blew up again he wouldn't fall from very high. This time he used as small of an amount of both as possible the result was far more stable a small flame formed in front of him. He steadily added more and more causing the tiny flame to grow into a fire ball. Once it got bigger than a ping pong ball it started to warp and randomly grow and contract. Naruto quickly reduced the flow. It returned to the ping pong ball sized flame and he regained control.

"Looks like I'll have to work on chakra control." He said.

He looked over the idea again while trying to maintain the fire ball. On paper it looked sound. Combine youki which was spiritual and only belonged to creatures like kitsune and other spirits with chakra produced solely by mundane things like humans. The youki was less dense and versatile but more powerful. The chakra was denser and more easily controlled as well as more multipurpose. Theoretically a combination of the two should give the control and versatility of chakra with the power of youki. Of course this theory required actual decent chakra control, something Naruto simply lacked. He sighed and put the scroll away for the time being knowing full well he would need some exercises from his teacher before he could really get anywhere with them.

With this done he walked back towards his apartment only to be interrupted by a kunai at his neck.

"Care to explain what you're doing in this dangerous place." Spoke a female voice form behind him.

Naruto turned his head slightly to see a purple haired woman with brown eyes though she was too close for him to tell anything else.

"I was working on a new technique and didn't want to risk hurting anyone else if it didn't turn out right." He said and pointed to the scorched half exploded branch he first sat on. "It really didn't work."

The woman glanced over to the branch and looked at the rapidly healing burn marks on the intruder and decided he was probably telling the truth. She retracted her blade from his throat and stepped back. Naruto turned around and got a good look at the woman. She was about his height, probably a little bit taller, with purple hair tied up behind her head wearing a full body mesh and orange skirt with a tan trench coat and a rather impressive figure.

"You're not supposed to enter this training ground it's dangerous." The woman explained.

"But I need one where people won't enter to work on making this move." Naruto complained.

The woman looked at him thoughtfully. "Tell you what meet me at gate ten of this place every Thursday at five p.m."

Naruto looked at her confused.

"That's when I come here to train, I can't let you in unsupervised but it would probably be worse to let you practice something like that," she pointed at the devastated tree branch, "where someone could accidentally run into you." She said.

Naruto nodded enthusiastically. "Thanks lady!"

"My name's Mitarashi Anko." She said holding out her hand.

"Uzumaki Naruto." He replied shaking it.

As Naruto ran off to his apartment Anko smiled slyly. "So he's Kurenai's new subordinate." She chuckled a little as he leapt over the fence. "This could be interesting."


	4. Chapter 4

Naruto was sitting at the training field reading his guide to fuinjutsu, Himari watching from behind while sharpening her sword, Ino standing shocked again to find her around, and Shino was just sitting patiently. A gust of wind and flutter of leaves alerted them to the presence of their teacher.

After looking around she asked. "Excuse me miss but what are you doing here?"

Before Himari could answer Naruto reached into under his jacket and pulled the Hokage's note out and handed it to her without even looking up from his book. She took the letter and read it. Then looked at the genin and his bodyguard, and then read letter again.

"Okay well it appears the Hokage has given this woman permission to escort Uzumaki in our training and missions." She said.

"What?" Asked Ino in surprise.

"The young lady is a member of a samurai clan that has served Naruto's family for a long time and has been given permission to watch over him as tradition dictates." Kurenai explained what she had read.

"So the reason she's been following you around is because she has a sworn duty to protect you?" Ino asked pointing at Naruto. Finally something was beginning to make some sense.

"Why must that be the only reason?" Himari asked looking at the mind possession specialist.

"Huh?" Ino asked.

"I would follow m'lord even had I not sworn an oath to do so." She said. Then she grabbed onto Naruto from behind.

Kurenai coughed. "That's nice but could we please begin for today."

The trio nodded, Naruto and Ino both looking ashamed.

They once again did surprisingly well during everything, though the big shock came at lunch.

"Alright team where should we eat." Kurenai asked.

Naruto spoke up first. "I know a decent tea house around here."

The other two genin looked at him in pure shock; well Shino was as shocked as a guy with his whole face concealed could look.  
"Who are you and what have you done with Naruto?" Demanded Ino.

The jounin and cat spirit looked at each other confused. "Um Yamanaka-san, what's wrong?"

"Naruto suggesting something other than ramen." Ino replied without missing a beat.

Naruto looked irritated. "I eat other stuff sometimes."

"Right then how come I only ever hear you say ramen?" She demanded.

"Because we never talked to each other before being put on the same team." He replied.

Ino looked suspicious. "All right then show us to this tea house." She said.

Naruto nodded. He led them to the place he went the day before thoroughly enjoying Ino's pure amazement at him eating at something besides a ramen shop. Then a completely flat expression formed on her face. He turned to look at his team to find an irritated expression on his teacher and body guard and Shino nodding in approval. He turned around hoping to figure out what was wrong. The waitress from the day before was in front of them and he actually got a good look at her this time, specifically at her maid uniform. He turned back to find all three women giving him an accusatory look.

"In my defense I did not see the uniforms yesterday when I found the place." He said in a halfhearted attempt at a defense even though he already knew they weren't going to buy it.

"Suuure you didn't Eromaki." Said Ino in a disbelieving tone.

They still wound up going in. Naruto wound up between Shino who was currently muttering angrily about being used as a human shield, and Himari sitting as close as possible glaring at the waitress every time she passed. Naruto sighed and pulled out his fuinjutsu book.

The waitress returned with their various forms of drinks and dumplings. Naruto ate silently without paying attention to everything around him. Had he, he would have noticed the waitress looking at him every time she passed. It wasn't until she brought their bill that she said anything out of the ordinary.

"Ah ha." She said quietly though loud enough that the ninja easily caught it.

"Ah ha what?" Asked Shino.

The girl looked embarrassed as she said. "I recognized the boy with the book, but I couldn't remember where I saw him before."

"Oh and where did you see him?" Asked Kurenai leveling yet another accusatory glare.

"He came in here yesterday and had a meal while reading a scroll." She said confused at the sudden hostility towards Naruto.

"And that was enough for you to remember him?" Asked Ino with a suspicious eyebrow raised.

"He's the first customer since we opened that didn't stare at me every time I came near his table." She said.

Both Ino and Kurenai blinked. As they paid and left Himari glared back at the restaurant behind them.

"M'lord please do not go back there." Himari said. "There was something strange about that place."

That little misadventure out of the way they went for their mission.

"Why does someone who can't garden anymore even have one?" Grumbled Naruto.

"Because they can just pay genin to do all the hard work while they enjoy the pretty flowers." Ino replied in an angry tone. Whether because of Naruto's complaining or the mission the half-breed wasn't sure.

It didn't help that Shino would stop every ten seconds to examine the bugs throughout the garden. Apparently professionalism ended where bug collecting began.

As the group left getting their pay for the day Naruto tapped their teacher on the shoulder.

"Yes Uzumaki?" She asked.

"Do you know anything that could help my chakra control?" He asked.

She smiled and told them to follow her. She led them to the wooded clearing they met in during mornings.

"It's a little early to start this but I think you three should be able to do it." She said and formed a ram seal. She then simply walked up to the lowest branch on a tree and sat down.

"This exercise is called tree walking for obvious reasons." She said. "You will focus chakra on your feet, which is the hardest place on your body to focus it, and use it to adhere to the surface of the tree."

They all looked at each other and nodded. Then they made a ram seal and tried the exercise. Naruto went flying while the other two climbed several steps before falling on their backs. The other two stood up while Naruto walked over to the tree. They all spent the next three hours working on it. Progress was made, Naruto managed to get down to only flying a few feet and Ino was already at the lowest hanging branches while Shino was about half way.

Naruto and Himari had started their trek home. The second they got through the door Naruto walked over to his bed, fell down, and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

The rest of the week played out pretty much like that, but with a different lunch spot. Naruto would still go to the tea house to study since the caffeine helped him stay awake. He actually got to be friends with the waitress who appreciated the fact that he didn't ogle her every second he was there. Then came his first training session in training ground forty four.

Naruto sat under a tree the size of an apartment building staring at a baseball sized blue and white sphere of flame. "Okay I can actually make a nice sized one now but what's the difference between this and an ordinary fire ball?"

Anko looked down at the fire ball in front of him. Her face scrunched up in thought and she scratched her head. "No idea kid, I know blue fire is supposed to be hotter than orange but it doesn't really matter how hot the fire is once the guy's burning he's pretty much dead anyway."

Naruto glared at the ball and made it move, It did a little loop de loop. "Well I can make it move how I want maybe that's something."

"Yeah that could be useful, but didn't you say you could make fire do that anyway?" She asked.

The two stood there staring at the fire ball trying to figure out its secrets. Five minutes and the two were annoyed that they couldn't think of anything. Ten minutes and they were glaring like they thought they could intimidate a ball of fire into coughing up its secrets. Half an hour and they were angry with an inanimate ball that Naruto could unmake with a thought as it floated there, mocking them, at least in their minds. Finally after an hour of nothing Anko tried something.

"Raaagh!" She grabbed the ball with her bare hand and hurtled it at a tree. "Do something damn you!"

The ball bounced off the tree and rolled along the ground. The two ninja stared dumbstruck. The ball rolled back to Naruto and started rolling around him in an orbit about two feet away.

They stared at it following its path as a ball of fire moved around them without burning anything.

"Well we know what it does now." Naruto said still half dazed.

Anko simply nodded.

"Now what do I do with a solid fire ball?" Naruto asked.

Anko shook her head side to side so fast Naruto was amazed she didn't get whip lash. She looked up holding her chin in thought and a wide grin formed on her face.

"Call it back." She said.

Naruto pulled it back till it was floating above his palm.

"Now try to make it look like a kunai." She said.

Naruto squinted in concentration and tried to make the fire ball look like one of his kunai. It took thirty seconds and he was huffing slightly by the time he was done but he had a perfect kunai, made of fire. He jumped and cheered in excitement.

Anko nodded while grinning smugly. "See kid."

He didn't answer. She looked over to find him doing a victory jig that shall not be described to prevent you from gouging out your mind's eyes. He looked over to find her staring at him in terror.

"Kid, never dance like that again." She ordered flatly. "And yes that is an order from a superior officer."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and chuckled sheepishly. "It couldn't have been that bad."

Three birds fell out of the sky and hit the ground around him. She looked at him with a blank expression.

"You can't think my dancing was bad enough to kill them." He said.

She raised an eyebrow. "I didn't say anything."

"You were thinking it." Naruto replied.

"Sure I was." She replied sarcastically while grinning. "I think you're a little paranoid kid."

Before Naruto could respond she turned around, put both hands behind her head and walked away whistling a jaunty tune.

Naruto followed her with his eye twitching in irritation.

The next day at the training field Naruto was working on making more than one fire kunai at once. "If I can make these at will I won't have to carry as many weapons." He thought.

Ino and Shino were sitting away looking at him wondering what he was up to. Suddenly his arm whipped out like he was tossing something and three blue streaks hit a tree across the clearing.

"What the hell!" Ino demanded.

Naruto ignored her and stood grinning like an idiot. She glared and turned to Shino who was staring at the tree. She tuned to look and saw what was in the tree. Three blue kunai on fire, buried up to the hilt in a tree.

"What was that?" Ino asked.

"My new technique." Naruto said. "Making kunai out of solid fire, I think I'll call it Tetsuen [1]."

"Solid fire, is that even physically possible?" Shino strangely was the one question.

"Well I did it so it must be." Naruto said.

"He's got you there." Ino said.

A gust and flutter was heard.

"Good morning today." She stopped. "What is that?"

Naruto explained his new move to everyone as best he could.

"Wait those things can explode!" Ino shouted.

Naruto looked at her stunned for a second before getting a devious smile. "Oh yeah I can probably do that on purpose can't I."

The other two looked at her as though she had just opened the gates of hell, well you couldn't really see it on Shino but it was there.

"Naruto you really should be careful with those." Shino said. "Why? Because it may start a forest fire."

The blond's head dropped down in despair at not being able to spam exploding knives of fire. The other two sighed in relief.

"But if you can make kunai aren't other weapons possible?" Asked Ino trying to get his mind off blowing things up while he was down.

"I don't know I haven't tried yet." Naruto said.

"Well how about something small like a ninjatou." She suggested.

Naruto focused and formed a ball of flame that slowly warped into a twenty one inch long single edged sword that was popular among sword fighters looking for a speed edge. They all looked closely as he swung and easily took a branch off a tree. Kurenai looked thoughtfully.

"That is a useful skill since as long as you have chakra, you have a weapon." She said. The she smiled and clapped her hands together. "I'll start looking for potential weapon instructors once we finish our mission today."

Naruto went white as he realized that this would probably eat up even more of his nearly nonexistent relaxation time. It was another week before they got their next bit of news. They had an instructor for swordsman ship. A man with pale skin and sunken eyes with a bad cough named Gekkou Hayate.

"Why do we have to learn along with Eromaki?" Demanded the young Yamanaka.

"Because if we run into a situation where we have no equipment Naruto may have to produce all of our gear, and knowing another skill never hurts in our line of work." Kurenai said.

Naruto went white as a sheet upon realizing that he may be designated armory if things went downhill.

"Now Naruto-san *cough* please produce a sword for each of them." The swordsman requested.

"Why? Shouldn't we practice with wooden swords or something?" Naruto asked.

"Because *cough* in the field each team member would want to practice *cough* with the weapon you're going to use so that *cough* you're used to it in a combat situation."He explained.

Naruto quietly decided he hated weapon practice.

"One hundred vertical slashes." Hayate ordered.

Naruto vocally decided he hated weapon practice. "Aaaaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhh!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] Iron flame


	5. Chapter 5

Team Eight and Himari stood in the Mission office. Across from them was the Hokage with a small brown dog and a scroll.

"Team eight I've called you here because Team seven has run into trouble during their current mission and their leader has requested we mobilize a support team to reinforce them." The Hokage said continuing with. "They state that the level of the mission has increased to B rank however we don't have a chuunin squad available at the moment as such we have no choice but to deploy a genin team."

"Sir, if you don't mind me asking why didn't they simply return to the village?" Kurenai asked.

"The country that hired them has potential to become a valuable trading post when the war in Kiri ends and a connection to them could provide valuable long term finical benefit for both sides." The Hokage replied. "Pakkun here will guide you to the temporary base Kakashi is using for the mission."

Kurenai nodded. "Alright team you all have several days' worth of supplies?"

They nodded.

"Then let's move out." She ordered.

It took them less than two days to arrive via tree jumping. They arrived outside a greyish house with a red roof and Kurenai knocked. The door was answered by a woman with moderate length black hair wearing a pink shirt and a blue skirt. She invited them in and they found an older man with greying hair a large gut and glasses wearing a green shirt and brown pants. And a child in green shirt and white overalls with a blue stripped white bucket hat.

Naruto smiled at the kid as Kurenai walked over to the table and handed a scroll to a man in a standard issue uniform, with gravity defying white hair and his head band pulled down over his left eye.

As the jounin discussed what was happening the three genin of team seven came down stairs. Naruto's face lit up.

"Hi S." He got out before being interrupted.

"What are you doing here Ino-pig?!" Sakura demanded loudly.

"Cold." The old man, white haired man, Shino, and surprisingly even Sasuke thought, even he at least let someone finish a greeting before brushing them off.

"For your information our team was sent here as reinforcement." Ino said arrogantly.

Chouji walked over to the other guys. "Chip?"

Both politely declined. Sasuke just left from the front door. Naruto sighed miserably and sat down to read a new book he had on fuinjutsu. Kakashi raised an eyebrow when he noticed the book. Himari and Shino sat down on either side of the blond. Kakashi turned to Kurenai.

"She's a samurai in Uzumaki's service." She preempted.

Kakashi nodded and seemed to drift off in thought for a moment before waving Kurenai over. The two had a whispered conversation that the samurai, bug user and half-breed ignored. The other members of team seven had left.

The kid looked incredulous at the casual attitude of the new comers. "You're all going to die."

Three of the four members of team eight as well as Himari looked at the kid. Naruto just kept reading as though he hadn't heard anything. Ino glared, Shino was impossible to read, Kurenai looked pitiably, and Himari instantly deemed the kid unimportant and focused on issues of merit. The boy ran upstairs and everyone went about their business.

Team seven returned at dinner and to the amazement of those that knew him Uchiha Sasuke started a conversation.

"You can read?" He asked with an eyebrow raised.

"You can talk?" Naruto returned.

"Touché." Sasuke replied.

The others stared in slight amazement. Both Ino and Sakura who had been fighting over who got to sit next to him. Chouji who being on a team with Sasuke and an old school buddy of Naruto shocked at their casual tone after having been insulted. Shino and Kurenai because they had both noticed that reading, especially about seals, usually had Naruto tune out the rest of the world. And Kakashi to see Sasuke talk to someone for reasons not related to training. The cat, bridge builder, his daughter, and the moping child were just confused at everyone else's' reactions.

Sasuke used the diversion to sit next to Naruto and pull Chouji down safely assuring that neither Sakura nor Ino would be directly next to him. He smirked triumphantly.

The next day after a quick briefing Kurenai had told Naruto to meet go with Kakashi while she took Sakura. Naruto had Himari stay at the base to guard the family.

They arrived in a clearing in the forest and Sasuke and Chouji immediately started running up two trees at the edge. Kakashi took Naruto aside.

"Alright Kurenai and myself came to an agreement last night." He said. "While we're in wave I'm going to help tutor you in sealing and she'll teach Sakura genjutsu."

Naruto nodded.

"So tell me what you know already."

Naruto gave him a detailed explanation of everything he knew.

Meanwhile with team eight at a shore side clearing.

"Why am I here with Ino-pig when I should be training with Sasuke kun?" Sakura grumbled.

"Because Kakashi has said you had perfect chakra control and I plan to make something of it." Kurenai said attempting to sound friendly.

"But I should be with Sasuke kun." Sakura complained.

"What are you whining about forehead?" Ino asked. "Even if you were you wouldn't have a chance."

Shino and Kurenai both silently tried in vain to will Naruto back. At least he and Ino eventually got tired of yelling at each other, Sakura and the blonde hadn't quit trading jabs since they left the house.

"This is going to be a long week." Kurenai muttered under her breath.

Shino nodded.

Back with team seven Kakashi was staring in shock.

"You learned all that by just reading an introductory book?" Kakashi asked.

"Yep." Naruto said simply.

Kakashi decided to simply give Naruto a scroll containing a few seals and let him practice on his own.

Naruto ran off and found a small lake in the woods were he sat down and read the first thing on the scroll. He quietly practiced the hand seals never quite noticing a figure watching him in the bush. Eventually he stood up to try it out when he saw the shadow reflected off the water.

He turned around and saw a young girl with short green hair and red eyes wearing a white dress standing behind him. He smiled and asked.

"What are you doing out here?"

She looked at him with a blank expression. "My home is close by and I came to check on some loud noises from the other day nano."

"Oh well you shouldn't be out here it could be dangerous for a kid alone." He said.

"I'll be fine nano." She replied.

The half breed shrugged and was about to start his scroll when he decided to try something else. Sealing supposedly required at least a decent amount of chakra control when using most that weren't made with ink and paper and he still wanted to improve Tetsuen to do something besides a few kunai and shuriken or a sword or three. So he tucked away the scroll for later and instead started the exercise his team was working on. He formed a ram seal and took a step out on to the lake, and flew ten feet up in the air before landing with a splash.

"Why did the water explode?" He asked annoyed. From what Kurenai sensei had told him that shouldn't have even been possible yet he couldn't not do it.

The girl sat off the side watching as he spent the rest of the day trying to walk on water. He managed to bring himself from ten feet vertical to eight foot eleven inches, and patted himself on the back for managing to cut the height by more than a foot. As he was getting ready to leave he gave the area a quick once over and realized the girl had left.

"Hey we're alone for now, why not let out our ears and tails desu?" his inner demon asked.

Naruto not seeing a reason not to and feeling the extremities in question suffering from lack of blood flow decided that going back to the teams could wait. He unwrapped his bandana and let his tails pop out of the back of his pants relaxing. He fell on his back side and let the wind flow through his hair wiping some sweat from his brow which was now get wet with no bandana soak up the offending fluid. With a quick double check to make sure he was in the clear he dunked his head in the water.

Holding his breath he washed his head under the cool lake surface for half a minute before lifting it with a loud breath out. He smiled to himself as he walked a bit away and lay down in the grass. Closing his eyes he nodded off with in seconds.

In Naruto's mindscape.

The fox half of the hybrids mind sat staring at the blond as he faded into existence.

The human Naruto sat up and looked over at his other side.

"Hmm why'd you bring me here I was."

"Having a dream about ramen desu?" The fox asked flatly.

"Yeah how'd you know?" Naruto asked. "Stupid question your me."

"Actually I can't see your dreams desu." The fox said flatly. "It's just that, that's one of the only three things you dream about and the most common desu."

Naruto blinked. "Oh, hay what's with the "desu" thing?"

"I appear to be developing my own personality since I've been free desu." The fox replied. "I suspect it will grow stronger the longer I remain desu."

"Oh. Cool." Naruto said and looked around. "So what did you want?"

"Well I was going to ask what we planned to do about this Gato problem desu." The fox replied.

"What do you mean I thought we were already protecting the old man isn't that what we're doing about the Gato thing?" Naruto asked.

"No that's what everyone else is doing, we are trickster desu. Manipulating the enemy and playing with their heads is what we should be doing desu." The fox replied.

Naruto looked up in thought. "And how would we do that it?"

"Well I would recommend disguising ourself as one of the enemy and spreading rumor of an S-class shinobi, after all the best lies all have a hint of the truth desu." The fox said in confident tone.

"Hmm, I'll keep that in mind." Naruto said. "But for now I should probably get back before anyone worries about me."

"Very well desu." The fox replied and smacked Naruto hard on the head.

Naruto shot awake and crashed head first into another person. Holding his forehead he opened one eye and looked over to see Ino standing there rubbing her head staring dazed at him. Naruto panicked as he felt his head to find that yes his bandana was still missing. "Well crap in a basket…desu."

"Kuso, Kuso , Kuso KUSO!" Naruto thought panicing.

Ino slowly leaned in and stared at his head. She reached up slowly and grabbed his ears and rubbed them before tugging to see if they came off. They didn't instead Naruto swore loudly. She looked him right in the eye and asked in a kind of out of it tone. "Are they real?"

Naruto nodded even as he already started to plan out how to fake his death and go into hiding.

Ino did not respond instead something behind Naruto caught her attention. She looked over his shoulder and quickly got up against him faster than he thought she could even move. Her arms wrapped around him as he practically freaked when her hands wrapped around one of his tails and pulled it up to her face. She started rubbing it against her cheek seemingly unaware of the world around her. Naruto was not so unaware.

"Oh dear Inari she's soft, and warm and smells so, no! I am not a pervert." He quickly shouted to himself. Followed immediately by mentally whining. "But she smells so good!"

"You never reacted like this to Himari dono desu." His inner fox said.

"I was always dead tired or barely awake when she got this close." Naruto replied. "I kind of did that on purpose to keep this from happening."

"Oh and Anko dono desu?" the fox asked.

"She never got this close." Naruto pointed out as Ino squeezed even harder. "Oh god there bigger than they look!"

Naruto eventually managed to break his tail free and stuff it back down his pants and quickly pull his bandana over his head. At which point Ino returned to her sense and found just how close she was to him. She blushed bright red smacked him and slid back shouting. "Eromaki!"

Naruto sighed in relief while rubbing the hand shaped red mark.

"What was that!?" Ino demanded loudly.

"Well obviously it was a tail." Naruto said. "One that you couldn't even be bothered to go around me to play with."

Ino blushed harder as she looked away embarrassed. "I-I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Some of the fur is still on your cheek." Naruto replied deadpan.

Ino felt her face and found several long strands attached. "That's not important why do you have a tail and those fuzzy ears?!"

"Because I'm part fox and now that you know that I have to eat your liver." Naruto said dead pan once more relying on the absurdity of everything was now his only hope.

"What my liver how are you going to get ahold of me long enough for that dead last?" She said emphasizing his title.

"Oh we're tricksters how do you know I wasn't faking?" Naruto said with a cocky smirk.

Ino started to sweat and just as Naruto had thought he had one and could coerce her into silence she replied. In the form of a swift punch to the face. "You won't get me without a fight!"

"You're not a very good kitsune." His other-self pointed out.

Naruto didn't reply to either as he fell backwards clutching his nose and making a pathetic whining noise. Ino looked down as he rubbed his nose. Naruto looked up at her teary eyed from pain which caused her to giggle. Then burst out into uproarious laughter. Naruto sat glaring at her until she stopped.

"What's the matter don't want my liver, I'm not sure I could have fought back when I couldn't breathe from laughing so hard." Ino said jokingly as she wiped tears from her eyes.

"I've decided to spare you if you keep my secret." Naruto said petulantly.

Ino burst out into more laughter. Once she calmed down she said. "Well tell me the story behind this and we'll see."

Naruto sighed and recounted the Mizuki incident that lead to his current form, carefully editing out anything about the Kyuubi. Ino did not laugh this time. In fact she actually looked rather sad with a few new tears flowing out.

"Mi-Mizuki tried to ki-ki-kill you?" She choked out. She then broke out sobbing and hugged him intentionally this time.

Naruto froze stone cold as this was far more than he had expected. He was expecting disbelief or at a bit of sympathy he could use. He was not expecting anyone except maybe the third or Iruka to show anything like this especially without proof. Not entirely sure what to do he simply patted her on the back while returning the hug very loosely.

Ino released him. "Come on lets go dinner is ready and don't worry I won't tell anyone about the kitsune thing."

Naruto just nodded and followed still completely thrown for a loop by this turn of events.


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto approached the lake he was practicing water walking on again. He arrived to find the same green haired child in the field again. He walked up to her waving cheerfully.

"Nice to see you again…" Naruto started as he realized something. "Um what was your name?"

"It's rude to ask someone else's name before giving your own nano." The girl replied monotone.

Naruto chuckled and extended his hand and said. "Sorry I'm Naruto."

"I'm Shizuku nano." She replied shaking his hand.

"So what are you doing out here now?" Naruto asked. "If it was about the explosions yesterday those were me."

She tilted her head and said. "How did you cause that nano?"

Naruto responded by stepping on the surface of the lake which exploded beneath his feet and he flew up into the air before falling back to the earth.

"That's how." He said as he looked over to her. "I did manage to get less air time recently though."

"I see nano." Shizuku asked.

"So are you sure it's okay for you to be here?" Naruto asked. "Won't your parents be worried?"

Shizuku replied. "No I, don't think they will nano."

Naruto flinched as he caught the pause. "That's not a good sign."

The look on the girls face clinched it he definitely said something stupid. Before he could say anything else she turned and left. Naruto got up with a small sigh and figured he should go find her to see if she was okay. He walked off towards the woods in the direction the young girl left. Naruto stumbled along the unfamiliar ground at some points getting a whiff of the girl's scent being the only reason he didn't lose her. He eventually reached a small broken down shrine on a peninsula in a lake.

"What the?" He asked himself as he walked up to the shrine and began looking around. The place was run down, rotten planks, and the paper doors were torn. A further inspection revealed that there were blade marks in what was left of some of boards. "What's wrong with this place?"

After searching high and low to find just how messed up the place was and shook his head.

"This place really should be fixed up desu?" His inner fox said. "This place was some spirits home."

"How would you know?" Naruto asked him.

"Well it's a shrine to a god and most gods are spirits so." The fox replied. "Logically it was and possibly still is desu?"

"I guess that makes sense." Naruto thought. "Still I maybe we should find that Shizuku girls first."

"Well that's going to be a problem since her trail ends at the lake." The fox replied. "So there really isn't anything we can do desu."

"I guess." Naruto thought reluctantly. With a sigh he turned back and wondered where he could find enough lumber for this project.

He arrived back at the house and walked up to the door. As he reached for the handle the door burst open and two female voices simultaneously shouted. "Sasuke kun!"

Ino and Sakura looked out at him and both sighed and hung their heads and said in perfect sync. "Oh. It's just you."

"Gee thanks." Naruto replied sarcastically.

The two retreated back into the building and Naruto followed behind walking to the main room.

"So what was that about?" He asked.

"Sasuke had a bit of a harder time with the exercise so he stayed longer to train." Kakashi explained lazily flipping a page. "They've been alternating between fighting and jumping at any sound near the door."

Naruto nodded and asked. "Hey where's the old guy around here I need something."

"What?" asked the white haired jounin.

"I need some lumber." Naruto said. "I found a shrine in the woods that needs fixing."

"Shouldn't you be training?" asked Kakashi.

"Well somebody's gotta do it." Naruto replied.

Kakashi shrugged at that. He wasn't going to argue with Kurenai's student. That was her job, and Naruto was way too much of a headache.

"Chouji and Shino are guarding him out at the bridge." Kakashi explained.

Naruto just nodded and wandered up the stairs planning his next move. He walked to the spare room the boys were staying in. He opened the door and walked in only to be grabbed from behind and fall to the ground from the sudden addition on the weight.

"Hey Himari." Naruto said pushing himself up. "What's up?"

"M'lord?" She asked.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Why do you smell like another woman again?" She asked flipping him over and getting in his face.

"I smell like what?" he asked taking a whiff.

"You didn't notice desu?" Asked the other side.

"I'm still getting used this whole improved smell and hearing thing." Naruto thought back.

"You smell like that Shizuku girl we picked it up from." The fox said.

Himari interrupted by asking. "Well?"

"Um." Naruto started. "Well you see there was this little girl."

Himari raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"That was a bad way to start that." Naruto said.

"Indeed." Himari agreed.

Naruto chuckled as he tried to think of an explanation for something he didn't know about until a second ago and had no idea how it could have occurred and when he never even touched the girl. He was pretty sure it took time and contact for that to happen.

"How did that happened?" Naruto wondered.

"Well it happened when." The fox side started again.

"Naruto!" Came a shout from the hall. He looked over to see Sakura turning the corner.

She looked at the scene of Naruto pinned to the ground by an attractive girl with confusion.

"Um this isn't what it looks." Naruto said holding out one hand towards the door.

"So you and the samurai girl are together?" Sakura asked. Her mouth curled into a smile and she said. "Well sorry for interrupting."

Naruto just stared blankly at the door as Sakura shut it on the way out. The hand fell weekly to the floor and his eye twitched. Himari looked annoyed at Naruto and then to the door. An eyebrow raised as she decided to have a conversation with the pancetta to find out but that could wait. They were interrupted as was the door opened again this time by Ino.

"Dinner." She said nonchalantly. "And could you not do this in a house with other people Eromaki?"

Naruto nudged the cat girl off and started walk away. Himari huffed and followed behind. The two sat down and Naruto took a quick look at Sakura to see her looking disapprovingly at Ino.

"I don't see why your so disappointed desu?" said the fox. "I mean why pay her special attention when I can think of at least three other girls worth that attention desu."

"Wait since when do you care?" Naruto asked sitting down.

"Well it's in my nature desu." The vulpine spirit replied. "Don't you know anything about kitsune?"

"Not really." Naruto thought grabbing a plate of what appeared to be a mix of vegetables and meat that where picked at random rather an actual dish in particular.

"What? Why not?" Asked his other side. "We're one of the best known types of spirits."

"Just tell me what you're talking about." Naruto thought taking a bite of his food.

"Let me put it this way Kitsune is spelled "stay the night" for a reason." The fox explained.

"What do… you… oh." Naruto thought back.

"Naruto san are you alright?" asked their hostess.

"Huh?" He asked.

"Your face is flushed." She said.

"Um I must have caught something after falling into a lake all day I should go lie down." Naruto said putting his food down. He walked back to his room. He made it to his futon and lay down planning to have a talk with his other self.

Naruto entered the usual place and sat down across from his other self and said. "Okay tell me everything to know about being a kitsune."

"Well I'm not sure I can say everything there is since I only have inherent knowledge and no teacher but I'll do what I can desu."

Naruto nodded. "Good enough."

"Well you already know about our illusions and fox fire." It said.

Naruto nodded again.

"In addition were natural tricksters and shape shifters." The fox half said. "We can also possess people and learn elemental abilities normally but I don't think we'll be able to do that because we're half human."

"Why does that matter?" Naruto asked.

"Well normal kitsune are spirits taking physical form but were naturally flesh because we're human." The fox said. "Any way another advantage is our claws and fangs obviously but also our tails can also be used as weapons"

"Really?" Naruto asked. "Well that's good to know."

"Also we have better senses than humans." The fox said.

Naruto tilted his head slightly. "Really I hadn't noticed."

"That's because you've been human pretty much the majority of our life you've trained your mind to focus on sight." The golden furred vulpine replied. "Why do you think we noticed how Ino chan smelled?"

"That makes sen… wait Ino chan?" Naruto asked. "Where did that come from?"

"Well we're friends right, chan is perfectly acceptable." The fox answered.

"Riiight." Naruto replied.

"You know you and I have the same subconscious right." The fox replied.

Naruto dropped the subject.

"Anyway you can control the length of our tails, as well as the shape and a hardness of the fur." The yellow fox said getting back on track.

"Cool." Naruto said. "So anything else."

"Well if there is I don't know it." The fox replied. "Oh wait be careful around dogs, they'll know."

"Got it." Naruto replied.

***************************************************************Scene**********************************************************

The next morning Naruto was woken up by Shino.

"Naruto we have a problem." The bug user said. "Sasuke san never came back and we need you go get him."

Naruto nodded drowsily. As he walked out of the room.

"Wait why me?" Naruto asked. "You're faster than Chouji san and Kakashi sensei in his current state."

"What about you or Sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Kurenai sensei and I have an even more difficult task." Shino explained. "We have to distract Ino san and Sakura san form the fact that Sasuke san hasn't come back."

Naruto turned a bit blue and patted Shino on the shoulder. "You're a brave, brave man Shino."

"Thank you." Shino said. "Also take the window so they can't see you."

Naruto nodded and jumped heading off the field that Sasuke and Chouji had been training in. He hopped from tree to tree as fast as he could eventually landing a little outside of the field walking past a pretty girl in a pink Kimono with short brown hair and matching brown eyes. He looked to side and turned back out as he walked forward towards dumb founded looking Sasuke. Naruto walked up to him.

"Hey Sasuke 'nother girl something on you?" the blond asked.

"Do you think she was cute?" Sasuke asked.

"Why do you want to know that?" Naruto asked.

"Just answer the question idiot." Sasuke ordered without his usual arrogance.

"Yeah." Naruto said confused. "Now will you tell me why?"

"That was a boy." Sasuke said.

Naruto did a quick double take. "Are you sure?"

"Well he said he was." Sasuke replied.

"I see." Naruto replied calmly. For several seconds both stood quiet.

Finally the silence was broken. "What?!"

Sasuke responded with. "Let us never speak of this again."

"Speak of what I can't even remember what we we're talking about." Naruto said.

"Right me to." The Uchiha said. "So what did you come here for?"

"The girls are worried about you." Naruto said.

"Not yet." Sasuke said angrily. "Until I can get up a tree I'm not leaving."

Naruto had to stop himself from laughing. Not for Sasuke's sake but because if he did he was sure he'd die from lack of breathing. Naruto was not able to stop himself completely though his shoulder's trembled.

"What?" Sasuke asked glaring.

"Try calming down and it'll work better." Was Naruto's replied and made a shadow clone. Naruto and the clone both ran off in different directions. Leaving Sasuke standing in the clearing annoyed.

Naruto himself went into town to find some boards to work with. He made it to town and walked through looking around the place for someplace that would have what he was looking for. It took a bit of searching but he eventually stumbled across a fenced off lumber yard with a booth at the gate and walked up the owner, a portly man with tanned leathery skin and greying brown hair dark eyes and a large beard that ran to the midpoint of his chest with in a faded brown kimono shirt with his legs hidden by a counter.

"What are you doin' her boy?" asked the man.

"I need some wood?" Naruto said.

The man looked over at the sign that said the place was a lumber yard and turned back to Naruto and said. "You don't say."

Naruto glared and forced a single "Ha".

"What do you need it for I can probably figure it out for you?" the man said with a chuckle.

"I'm fixing up a shrine in the woods." Naruto said.

"The old lake shrine?" The man asked. "I wouldn't do that if I were you boy, the place is cursed."

"Why not?" Naruto asked.

"Along time ago a demon posing as a water god lived there demanding a terrible price to keep the rain going. One day the town's folk decided they had enough and hired a demon slayer to deal with the monsters. The slayer burned down the shrine and killed the monster but ever since anyone who goes there for any length of time dies horribly." The owner said.

Naruto replied. "Don't worry I can handle myself."

"You sure boy." The man said.

Naruto nodded.

"Well if you're sure I do need the business." The man said. "I'll get what you should need but don't say I didn't warn you."

"I won't." Naruto said. "So any idea what this'll cost me."

The man pulled out some paper and pencil scratched out a number, scratched his head and jotted down some more stuff before handing him a bill. Naruto took it and read it over once, then read it again and fainted standing up. The man laughed in a massive booming one and waited for Naruto to come back around.

"So can you actually afford that?" The man asked.

Naruto pulled out a frog wallet and looked inside. "Um I think so."

"Well you know what I think I can give you a bulk discount." The man said slapping the blond hard on the shoulder. "Like I said I need the business."

Naruto smiled and cheerfully thanked the man.


End file.
